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Sir  Launfal  of  Korea 


NATHAN  LOUNSBURY  ROCKWELL 


Korea  Quarter-Centennial  Movement 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
150  Fifth  Avenue 
New  York 

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SIR  LAUNFAL  OF  KOREA 


“Not  wliat  we  give,  but  what  we  share, 

For  the  gift  without  the  giver  is  bare ; 

Who  gives  himself  with  his  alms  feeds  three, 
Himself,  his  hungering  neighbor,  and  me.” 

The  laymen  who  have  been  told  so  much  in 
recent  years  about  their  duty  to  give  their 
money  for  the  extension  of  the  gospel  have 
heard  very  little  about  a  New  England  manu¬ 
facturer  who  recently  gave  not  only  his  means 
but  himself  to  Korea. 


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Natliaa  Lounsbury  Rockwell  was  a  well¬ 
born  Connecticut  boy  who,  after  passing  the 
entrance  examinations  for  Yale,  turned  aside 
to  a  successful  business  career  as  a  shoe  manu¬ 
facturer.  He  was  an  earnest  church  and  Sun¬ 
day  school  worker  and  it  was  the  joy  of  him¬ 
self  and  Mrs.  Rockwell  to  give  their  eldest  son 
to  home  missionary  work.  The  reports  of  the 
progress  of  the  gospel  in  Korea  stirred  their 
hearts  to  go  and  see  for  themselves  four  years 
ago,  taking  with  them  their  youngest  son  and 
only  daughter.  What  they  saw  convinced  him 
that  Korea  needed  him  more  than  Connecticut. 

Dr.  Rosetta  Sherwood  Hall,  who  was  sta¬ 
tioned  at  Pyeng  Yang  when  these  observant 
tourists  came  there  as  the  guests  of  the  Rev. 
and  Mrs.  W.  A.  Noble,  has  told  of  his  interest 
in  the  Christmas  exercises  in  our  native  mis¬ 
sion  church.  The  class  of  eight  blind  girls 
touched  his  heart  and  the  next  morning  he  was 
in  Dr.  Hall’s  study,  putting  searching  in¬ 
quiries  concerning  the  origin  and  object  of  this 
special  work.1  When  he  found  that  the  work 
was  limited  because  the  Woman’s  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  had  but  $100  a  year  to 
spend  on  it,  he  said  he  would  be  responsible 
for  enlarging  the  class  to  at  least  thirty  girls 
and  would  try  to  enlist  other  helpers.  He  lis¬ 
tened  eagerly  to  her  plans  for  initiating  a 
similar  school  for  deaf  mutes,  and  as  soon 
as  he  had  settled  his  family  in  California  he 
returned  to  Korea  as  a  self-supporting  mis¬ 
sionary,  taking  passage  “second  class,”  in 
order  to  save  enough  money  to  send  a  Korean 
couple  to  Chefoo  to  be  trained  as  instructors 
in  the  school  for  the  deaf  where  he  was  al¬ 
ready  educating  the  ten-year-old  deaf-mute 
son  of  a  Korean  pastor. 

>  The  condition  of  blind  girls  in  Korea  is 
pitiable  in  the  extreme,  for  under  heathen 
customs  they  are  left  in  ignorance  and  abject 

'See  Korea  Field,  May,  1908,  and  Woman’s  Friend, 
Boston,  September,  1908. 

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slavery  or  sometimes  trained  as  sorceresses  or 
fortune-tellers.  Deaf  mutes  are  looked  upon 
as  imbeciles.  As  there  is  no  Korean  hand 
language,  they  have  no  name,  are  not  taught 
to  read  or  write  and  know  nothing  except  what 
they  can  acquire  by  other  senses  than  hearing. 
To  the  blind  our  missionaries  have  brought  the 
blessing  of  light  in  the  form  of  the  “New 
York  point”  alphabet,  and  deaf  mutes  have 
been  taught  lip  reading  and  vocalization. 
Verily  the  blind  received  their  sight  and  the 
deaf  heard  ! 

And  the  poor  had  the  gospel  preached  to 
them  !  for  in  the  dearth  of  workers,  Dr.  Hall 
returning  on  furlough,  the  Yankee  shoe  manu¬ 
facturer  had  not  only  the  care  of  the  work  for 
the  twenty-six  blind  girls  and  the  deaf,  but  he 
had  charge  of  eight  colporteurs  for  the  Bible 
Society  and  was  thrust  out  into  the  active 
evangelistic  work  in  the  country  around  Hai 
Ju,  aided  by  his  faithful  interpreter,  Mr. 
Yoon. 

Though  delicately  brought  up  and  accus¬ 
tomed  to  every  home  comfort,  Mr.  Rockwell 
lived  in  a  mission  house  inferior  to  his  barn 
at  home.  On  his  preaching  circuit  and  in  his 
country  classes  he  slept  in  mud-walled  huts, 
not  high  enough  to  stand  upright  in  except 
under  the  ridge-poles,  and  with  leaky  thatch 
and  paper  windows.  He  had  counted  the  cost 
beforehand  and  spared  not  himself  in  his 
Master’s  service. 

Only  ten  days  before  his  sudden  death  of 
pneumonia,  last  December,  he  wrote  to  his 
only  daughter  from  Hai  Ju: 

“I  am  in  my  room,  with  a  severe  catarrhal 
cold.  *  *  *  A  man  came  in  with  a 

pheasant  and  a  chicken  for  me  and  said  that 
some  time  before  he  had  been  persecuted  till 
quite  discouraged,  but  he  often  came  to  me 
and  I  prayed  and  helped  and  encouraged  him, 
so  th,at  his  faith  sprang  up  again  and  he  had 
been  happy  ever  since.” 

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Also  he  wrote  of  having  received  that  morn¬ 
ing  a  letter  from  a  Christian  Korean  woman, 
who  had  been  helped  by  a  sermon  of  his : 

“So  these  two  this  morning  have  cheered 
me.  *  *  *  I  had  a  letter  today  from 

Brother  Noble,  saying  he  will  be  here  January 
4,  to  hold  classes,  and  he  asked  me  to  give 
one  hour  each  to  two  classes  .every  day,  teach¬ 
ing  scriptural  holiness  for  eight  days.  This 
is  an  opportunity  I  want  to  prepare  for,  and 
in  the  meantime  I  must  go  to  Pyeng  Yang  and 
return  (to  attend  to  the  work  for  the  blind  and 
deaf).  *  *  *  When  you  get  this  I  will  have 
finished  teaching  the  class.  I  expect  to  be 
well  before  that  time.  *  *  *  I  am  so  glad, 

my  little  girl,  that  you  know  Jesus.  Some 
will  not  understand  you.  ¥  *  *  Don't  be 

influenced  by  those  who  do  not  know  the 
Lord.  Trust  in  Jesus  always — rest  in  Him 
without  any  unrest.” 

A  month  earlier  he  had  written  his  last 
letter  to  Dr.  Hall  in  America,  urging  her  to 
obtain  improved  machinery  for  printing  books 
for  the  blind.  The  letter  was  full  of  details, 
showing  his  thoughtful  care  for  the  blind 
girls,  as  if  they  were  his  own  children.  He 
was  even  trying  to  bring  a  Japanese’ dentist 
from  Seoul  to  attend  to  the  teeth  of  his  sight¬ 
less  charges.  “I  think  she  will  be  reasonable,” 
he  says.  “We  owe  this  to  the  girls.”  He  goes 
on  to  write  of  them  individually.  “Susanna  is 
a  very  strong  woman  spiritually,  a  great  help 
to  the  school.  She  is  to  be  a  Bible  woman.” 
Another,  An-Su-Ni,  “is  happy,  prays  much  in 
secret  and  gives  a  beautiful  testimony  in 
prayer  meeting.”  He  rejoices  in  the  great  re¬ 
vival  that  was  sweeping  through  the  native 
churches.  And  in  closing  he  said:  “I  thank 
you  for  remembering  me  in  prayer.  I  need 
help  from  the  Lord  continually.  We  all  do 
out  here.” 

Burdened  with  the  sense  of  opportunities  of 
service  far  beyond  his  resources  of  means  or 

5  ^ 


physical  strength ;  working  day  and  night  for 


BLIND  SUSANNA 

She  holds  copies  of  Mark’s  Gospel,  which  she  dls- 
N  tributes  in  her  calls  from  house  to  house 

others  and  sending  written  and  printed  ap¬ 
peals  to  his  friends  at  home  for  the  twenty  or 
twenty-five  dollars  which  will  keep  a  blind 
boy  or  girl  in  school  a  whole  year,  he  did  need 
the  help  of  the  Lord  continually  and  it  was 
vouchsafed  him. 

His  going  brought  tears  to  eyes  that  had 
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never  looked  upon  his  face.  Prudence  O.,  the 
first  blind  pupil,  now  a  teacher,  wrote  to  Dr. 
Hall  when  she  heard  the  news  of  his  death  : 

“Because  Mr.  Rocawell  has  died  all  our 
blind  and  deaf  girls  are  very  sad.  We  all 
feel  like  we  are  orphans,  for  he  was  more 
than  a  father  to  us.  We  all  say  that  the  like 
of  Mr.  Rockwell  will  not  be  found.  When  Mr. 
Rockwell  was  here  in  Pyeng  Yang  he  prayed 
with  us  every  morning  and  evening  and  gave 
most  interesting  talks.  The  last  time  he  Avent 
away  Ruth  (the  matron)  and  I  Avent  to  the 
train  to  bid  him  good-by  and  he  told  me  to 
pray  with  the  girls  every  night  and  morning 
and  he  told  Ruth  to  take  good  care  of  us  all. 
He  told  ns  at  the  train  he  would  come  again 
at  Christmas  time,  but  on  Christmas  morning 
Ave  heard  that  Mr.  Rockwell  was  very  ill  in 
the  country,  and  though  Ave  prayed  very 
earnestly  that  he  might  get  well,  God  took 
him.” 

His  companion  and  interpreter,  Mr.  Yoon, 
declared :  “He  fed  my  soul.  If  ever  a  man 
lived  close  to  God,  Mr.  RockAvell  did.  lie 
wanted  so  much  to  go  home  and  see  all  his 
family  once  more.” 

Dr.  Hall,  whose  progressive  philanthropy 
and  deep  spirituality  so  powerfully  influenced 
him,  and  who  was  more  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  extent  and  character  of  his  ministry 
than  almost  anyone  else,  speaks  of  his  inde¬ 
scribable  charm  and  the  chivalrous  instinct 
which  marked  his  manner  and  bearing:  “It 
was  a  privilege  and  an  inspiration  to  know 
-  him.  His  wisdom  was  kind  and  his  kindness 
wise. 

“  ‘Nor  knowest  thou  what  argument 

Thy  life  to  thy  neighbor’s  creed  has  lent.’  ” 

Bishop  M.  C.  Harris  has  remarked  upon  the 
esteem  in  which  the  Koreans  held  him.  The 
Christliness  of  his  service  was  not  lost  upon 
the  non-Christians. 


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The  work  is  left  in  sore  straits  by  Mr. 
Rockwell’s  departure.  In  his  last  printed  re¬ 
port  he  said :  “Future  enlargements  and  in¬ 
creased  usefulness  may  depend  somewhat  upon 
the  assistance  it  receives  from  appreciative 
friends.”  And  the  friend  who  most  appre¬ 
ciated  it  and  did  most  to  maintain  it  is  gone. 

Dr  Alice  F.  Moffatt  writes  from  Pyeng 
Yang:  “Surely  the  life  he  gave  for  Korea 
calls  earnestly  for  others  to  take  up  the  work 
he  laid  down.”  Dr.  Hall,  who  is  in  New 
York  doing  post-graduate  medical  work,  says  : 
“We  cannot  attempt  to  explain  the  calling 
home  of  one  so  sorely  needed.  It  indeed  seems 
a  strange  providence  to  us  who  remain  and 
upon  whom  the  work  rests  the  heavier  for  his 
going,  but  it  certainly  is  a  call  to  us  all  to 
increased  faithfulness  and  activity.  And  may 
it  not  also  be  a  call  for  more  workers  who 
are  independent  of  financial  considerations, 
who,  like  the  missionary  Paul,  forego  theii 
right  to  live  of  the  gospel  they  proclaim? 
May  the  consecrated  life  and  work  of  this 
layman  inspire  many  more  of  private  means 
to  definite  service,  and  may  the  work  be  con¬ 
tinued  of  this  faithful  man  of  God,  who,  like 
his  Master,  emptied  himself  and  counted  not 
his  life  dear  unto  himself,  but  poured  it  forth 
to  the  uttermost  in  loving  ministry  to  others.” 

If  ever  knighthood  was  in  flower  it  was 
when  Nathan  Rockwell,  seeing  the  great  need, 
gave  himself  for  its  relief.  There  must  be 
other  men  who  are  living  near  enough  to 
Christ  to  be  able  to  respond  to  the  same  call 
and  to  carry  on  his  unfinished  work. 


Reprinted  from  The  Christian  Advocate 
For  further  information  and  literature,  address 
Korea  Quarter-Centennial  Movement 
150  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City 


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